a realization of who and what we are. You are whatever you put your mind to, you are the creative principle.

a way of realizing what that unconscious thought is, and to change it, if it is negative.

effortless control of the mind; it is the opposite on concentration, which is an energized effort of the mind.

a centering of mind and body

freedom from the limitations of your past or apprehensions of your future

the art and science of getting rid of things (anger, jealousy, negative emotions that makes life unacceptable, what makes life fearful, painful)

to remember

to improve your life and improve those life around you

a way of seeing and learning without effort. As we allow the world to be itself, allowing others to do their thing, emotionally we allow ourselves to be ourselves, and to be free.

full attention without tension

A balanced state of awareness

the best way to solve the problem of limitation caused by the personality

not something that you HAVE to do. It is an intricate part of your life
Your everyday life is the base of your mediative practice. What you do, think, say, actions.

life, return to your life, joy, truth, not in the past, not in the future, here and now

a way of applying a state of consciousness to a problem, in timelessness, and when that transpires the problem is solved for all time
Meditation brings you back to the depths of yourself, away from your surface mind and into your inner mind.

Greater awareness of yourself and the world around you manifest.
Meditation causes nano seconds of mini bliss, then we see, we are mature, unselfish, wise. We learn we have been there for years and wasn’t wise enough to know it.

Things happened because of what you did, meaning where you are mentally. patterns

Find a goal, dream, idea, and lock to it. Then find a meditation that works for you.

Mediate until the confusion is gone and you see your life.

It isn’t what comes into our life, but from meditation to wisely respond. Our reaction to what happens is most important.

As you meditate you will become more loving, kind, and less judgmental
The key to meditation is to transcend that every day “computer”of logic and emotions by bringing them together, by merging them, by neutralizing one against the other.

Certain goals that you reach can come only through meditation, which necessitates the effortless control of the mind.

Lets find which technique works best for you? Book your one on one meditation session with me today.

Meditation is so needed by everyone to make life better. Maybe this technique to start making some changes will work for you.
Neti technique is a mental technique to help control the wandering of your restless mind. It is a very easy technique.
Sit quietly for one or two minutes, in a meditative position, or any position that is comfortable. Turn your attention inward to your mind and its thoughts.
Every time a thought pops up from your past ,present ,or future say, ” Neti Neti Neti”
which means, I am not that thought, I am not that thought, I am not that thought.
This process goes on until the mind begins to quiet the “thought process” and then can produce ‘meditative processes.”
You are the creator of your mind processes. The brain perceives ideas that you feed into it for processing. Your ideas exist merely as tools to serve your higher Self. Your ideas are your creation , and you have the control to change , shape, improve, or transcend.
This is how the ego can control you, as this is the challenge for most. Your emotions grow long tentacles that reach our for ideas that fit your emotional predisposition, and these ideas then begin to control your mental life!!!!!!
When you become emotionally attached to ideas, you begin to sink into a turmoil of ignorance.
Another purpose of Neti Neti Neti is to break free from your thoughts so you can view ideas for what they are, objective tools.
Neti neti neti simply, gently, and repeatedly break the network of useless thoughts that clog up your mind.
Break the uncontrolled emotion/thought cycle.
Optimally, practice Neti Neti Neti once a day at first, then gradually increase your practice to four regular brief sessions. You will attain detachment from your emotional thought patterns- you created. You will weaken your ego’s attachment to thoughts, thereby freeing your mind for truly important progressive thinking and learning. You will find freedom from the old, outdated emotions and thoughts. Your thinking will take on a new clarity, a new freedom, and you well actually experience the realization that you are the creator of your inner world and you life!!

Worth a minute a day isn’t it?

I am blessed to have learned this through my teacher Goswami Kriyananda

I read this amazing book by Malika Chopra called Living with Intent. I wanted to share some of the amazing things that really stayed with me.
Intents are expressions of who we aspire to be as individuals- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They come from the soul, from somewhere deep inside us where we get clarity on our heartfelt desires for happiness, acceptance, health, and love. By thinking about our intents, cultivating and expressing them, we create the climate in which they’re more likely to happen. Intents also need to be nurtured, time to come to fruition. The right time in our lives we need to take action and make an effort to encourage and foster their fulfillment.
What do I want? is the wrong questions, a better questions may be, What can I give?

When you think of the word Intent this of the words incubate, notice, trust, express, nurture, and take action

Incubate- meditate and tap into your deepest intensions; see where this leads you

Notice- become mindful of your thoughts and actions and pay attentions to what they tell you about what gives you meaning and a sense of purpose and look for signs that can point you toward your true path.

Trust- Have confidence in your inner guide, in the messages the universe sends you, and allow that knowledge to guide you forward.

Express- Write down your intensions, say them out loud or share them with others to fully embrace them and help you move ahead in your journey.

Nurture- be gentle with yourself. Intention isn’t always a straight ward path, just as life isn’t. Giving yourself opportunities to try and fail. This is part of, crucial to, the process.

Take action- Once you’ve identified an intent(s), don’t sit and wait for it to magically manifest; instead take the practical steps that can make each become a reality. It may be easiest to choose one intent first, and set short-term goals to help you get started.

To tap into your intents, you need to know yourself; meditation helps reveal your thought processes, your fears, your insecurities, your strengths, and your passions. Once you are aware of those aspects of yourself, you are better able to identify the thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back and hone in on the activities, people, and practices that lift you up. In other words, you are ready and more able to live with intent

Before anyone can even think about their intentions and what they want out of life, they need to discover what it means to be present. Eckart Tolle

Meditation is worth a try for two great reasons: 1) Anyone can do it and 2) It has concrete physical and psychological benefits. For instance:
*Slow, regulated breathing allows your body to release “happy” chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, which all positively affect your mood and function.
*Five minutes (!) of meditation a day can reduce your anxiety up to 22%.
*Meditation will help you achieve deeper REM sleep. Slow, even breathing for 20 minutes before bed has been shown to help people wake up less during the night.
*People who meditate regularly experience an overall drop in blood pressure.
*Meditation appears to change activity in the pain-processing region of the brain. Meditators can get up to a 40% reduction in pain intensity. It can also reduce inflammation from conditions such as asthma, arthritis, tendonitis, etc.
Why does meditation work? The answer starts with the act of breathing itself. In many ways, breathing is the most important physical activity we do in life, but many of us in modern societies tend to ignore its importance. The average person breathes around 20,000-25,000 times a day—so if each breath is stressed or inefficient, imagine the effect that will have on the rest of your bodily systems. Meditation helps restore your respiratory function first, and that has a massive, positive effect on everything else.
Meditation also helps re-connect your brain to the rest of you. Slowly training your mind to focus on what’s happening in the here and now, instead of worrying about what occurred in the past or the future, helps reduce both regret and anxiety, which are the roots of stress. When stress goes down, the body reboots your Para-Sympathetic Nervous System, or what we at Nimble Fitness call the “rest and repair” system. Slow breathing also allows us to “pay attention” to our bodily systems in a way which is impossible if we’re on the go, trying to do a dozen things at once. These processes—actively reducing stress and being more present—help improve and restore all the body’s vital systems, including digestion, metabolism, cognition, immunity and so on.
It takes a small commitment to add breath work into your life, but it can offer you some amazing benefits!

What if someone had a magic pill that could make you feel calmer and more energized; something that could combat depression, shrink your waistline, improve your focus and productivity, regulate your hormones and boost your immune system? And what if I told you that magic pill is called sleep? Sufficient, quality sleep gives you all of these things and more. In fact, at Nimble Fitness we know that sleep could be the most important missing ingredient in your health program.

Over 40 million people in the US suffer sleep disorders. And all of us just lost an additional hour of sleep a week ago! A tired brain isn’t able to communicate its needs properly, which can lead to health imbalances and increase unhealthy habits. A sleep-deprived brain will also have a slower reaction time to any type of stimulus. You can take all the vitamins and drink all the caffeine you want, but sleep deprivation is sleep deprivation. And don’t count on recovery methods to contradict bad sleep (or a poor diet). Adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. Less than five or six hours of sleep will negatively impact human performance, mental health, cardiovascular health, immune function, pain tolerance and general health. More than 8 hours a night can improve all of the above! Lack of sleep can also result in weight gain. Woman who sleep five hours a night were 15 percent more likely to be obese than those who slept seven hours. Being sleep deprived hurts metabolic function, contributes to weight gain and makes weight loss more difficult.

Perhaps the most critical element of sleep for adults is recovery–sleep enables the body to heal itself. Sleep is actually not a passive activity; studies show during some sleep phases, parts of the brain are more active then they are when you are awake. As you rest, your body and brain are preparing and rebuilding themselves. Growth hormones, which promote cell reproduction and regeneration, are released into the bloodstream and the production of certain types of immune cells peaks. Sleep recovery also aids motivation, recovery of muscle strength, speed work and sprints, muscle glycogen (stored energy in the muscles), and helps stress regulation through balancing cortisol levels.

As we age, we sleep less and spend less time in slow-wave sleep. Amyloid beta, a key component of brain health, is cleared from the brain during slow-wave sleep. People who sleep less, or sleep badly, start to accumulate amyloid deposits over time, which can eventually lead to early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep slows your heart rate and breathing, and causes your blood pressure to drop. It also changes the frequency of your brainwaves. Delta waves, the slowest frequency brainwaves, are linked to deep healing and only occur during the deepest part of your sleep cycle. These are the same brainwaves experienced in a meditative state.

So, if sleep is so important, how do we actually improve our sleep? Here are some Nimble tips for instantly improving your sleep:

4. Keep a notepad by your bed so you don’t have to worry about forgetting something; just write it down and go back to sleep.

5. Try pre-sleep meditation, or calming music. Imagine a tranquil natural scene. This visualization could help you relax. Studies at Oxford University showed that those who used this technique would fall asleep twenty minutes sooner than those who did not picture the tranquil scene. Avoid counting sheep! This actually took people longer to fall asleep.

6. Tech curfew! The light radiating from TV, phones, computers and iPads can disrupt your circadian rhythm. Our circadian clocks regulate our sleep, so using bright-screen technology near bedtime interrupts our natural circadian rhythms and will negatively impact sleep. Furthermore, A study at Harvard University Medical School found that particular frequencies of light disrupt sleep. Here’s a not-so-fun fact: The top 25% of social media users were 2-3 times more likely to have disturbed sleep than those in the bottom 25%! Turn off all your devices at least an hour before bedtime.

7. If you consume alcohol, you’ll fall asleep more quickly but your quality of sleep will be poor. REM sleep is also decreased.

8. Exercise regularly, just not right before bed. That can have the opposite effect!

Consumers today will pay a premium for organic, wholesome products. People want to live as naturally as they can, so the environment is ripe for companies and marketers to emphasize all the “clean” benefits of the their products. We all need to be careful, however, about what we’re buying. Packaging can vary from just confusing to actually lying about what is in the product.

Let’s start with what we eat—specifically fish and produce. Ideally, our healthiest choice is fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in mercury. Pregnant woman, children and people who eat seafood frequently must limit mercury consumption by avoiding seafood that is known to be high in mercury; variety is key when it comes to fish and shellfish. The fish that are highest in Omega-3 and lowest in mercury are Salmon (wild caught if possible), Sardines, Muscles and Rainbow Trout. Seafood that you might want to cut down on/eat rarely are Sea Bass, Albacore Tuna and Lobster.

Another food choice that requires more careful consideration is store-bought produce. Did you know that two-thirds of the produce that was sampled in recent government testing had pesticide residues? The food labeled “conventional” at your grocery carries a lot of pesticide residue, which helps preserve the produce longer on the shelf. Foods labeled “Organic” have been grown in different soil and do not carry the same pesticides, so look for the organic label. The foods known as the dirty dozen usually have the greatest amount of hazardous pesticides: Strawberries, Apples, Nectarines, Peaches, Celery, Grapes, Cherries, Spinach, Tomatoes, Sweet Bell Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Hot Peppers, Kale, and Collards. The clean fifteen are the foods know to have the lowest amount of pesticides: Avocados, Sweet Corn, Pineapples, Cabbage, Sweet Peas, Frozen Onions, Asparagus, Mangos, Papayas, Kiwis, Eggplants, Honeydew Melons, Grapefruit, Cantaloupe, and Cauliflower.

And the next time you’re food shopping, take a quick look at the little sticker on your fruits and veggies—it can tell you a lot! Here’s a quick primer: First, you’ll notice that the stickers on fruits and veggies will have a 4 or 5 digit code. If your produce has 4 digits, it means that it was “conventionally grown, but not organic”. If it has 5 digits, and begins with a 9, it means that the produce was organically grown. A 5 digit code that begins with an 8, however, indicates that the produce was genetically modified. [happyhealthylife.com]

Finally, household cleaning products are not required to disclose ingredients on product labels, so many don’t. This makes it incredibly difficult for consumers to choose safe products. Don’t blindly trust marketing claims that are printed on the pretty bottles! Here are some basic ideas of what to avoid in cleaning products: antibacterial cleaners, air fresheners, and drain cleaners. And personal care products you should be cautious about using are: chemical hair straighteners; dark permanent hair dyes; loose powders (possible inhalation damage); perfumes/fragrances that may cause allergies; and skin lighteners (skin irritation and damage). There are perfectly safe, natural cleaning alternatives like: white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and washing soda. Lemons are pretty amazing for tough stains, grease and general cleaning. White Vinegar is also an amazingly versatile cleaner to have in your home.

All of the bad marketing, unhealthy ingredients and confusion lead me to create my own brand of organic, toxic free skin and home care products called TRUTH. If you’re interested in natural alternatives, feel free to contact me and try some samples of TRUTH or get your complimentary Aromatherapy consultation.

I am not a doctor, I am a biomechanics specialist and aromatherapist. I often choose to use alternative medicine when I see fit. I believe in traditional medicine and grateful for all that it is. I have studied over 700 hours of aromatherapy and have created my own line of Organic based skin and home care products called TRUTH. I believe in the mind body connection and that the body works as a whole.
Maintaining hormone balance is a lifelong process.
Hormone functions have tremendous impact on other areas of health. Natural alternatives including lifestyle modification, consistent use of Organic ONLY essential oils, and nutritional supplementation, can help manage symptoms associated with hormone dysfunction or abnormalities.
Exercise, meditation, and a healthy diet is a good start to balancing your hormones or keeping them balanced. Hormone balance could help with maintaining healthy weight, improved metabolism, reduced stress, healthy immune response, and improved energy.

Hormonal balance is one of the most important aspects of a properly functioning body. Hormones, such as estrogen and insulin, are chemical messengers that affect many aspects of your health as they travel in your bloodstream throughout your entire body. Some of the most common side effects of hormone imbalance include:
Infertility
Weight gain
Depression
Fatigue
Insomnia
Low libido
Hair loss and hair thinning

Cortisol, the “stress hormone” is produced by the adrenal glands and regulates your body’s response to stress. It works on a schedule — good sleep, starting at 10 pm, maximizes adrenal hormone function.

Out of balance cortisol levels can lead to:
feeling exhausted upon waking even after a long night’s sleep
high energy late in the evening or waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning
an inability to calmly deal with stress
food cravings
brain fog

Your adrenal glands are responsible for how you cope with stress. The key to adrenal balance is to allow yourself more restorative relaxation time and sleep. Improve the quality of your sleep with lavender aromatherapy for example, meditation, and exercise.

Both men and women can be low in progesterone, and low progesterone levels have been linked with infertility and depression as well as other imbalanced hormones within the body.
Hormones, stress and thyroid function are all directly linked.
Out of balance thyroid function symptoms include:
Depression
Uncontrollable weight gain or loss
Dry hair and skin
Cold or heat fluctuations
Insomnia

While menstruation and menopause are natural processes, some of the side effects are not. The ovaries produce the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which when imbalanced, lead to several symptoms including:
PMS
infertility
difficult or irregular menstrual cycles
lowered libido
difficult menopausal symptoms like sweats and hot flashes

Keeping your liver healthy is key. The liver regulates the sex hormones, primarily estrogen. A liver detox is a good idea.

Synthetic treatments, such as hormone replacement therapy, can make you dependent on prescription drugs, mask symptoms while developing diseases in other parts of the body and often causing serious side effects.

Aromatherapy for anxiety is very popular because our sense of smell triggers powerful emotional responses. We process so much information through our sense of smell, in an area of the brain adjacent to the limbic region.

When the scent of an essential oil is inhaled, molecules enter the nasal cavities and stimulate a firing of mental response in the limbic system of the brain. These stimulants regulate stress or calming responses, such as heart rate, breathing patterns, production of hormones and blood pressure. Aromatherapy can be by used in a bath, direct inhalations, diffuser blends , in skin care, home cleaning supplies, perfume and cologne. I make all of this TRUTH for your individual needs.

I hope everyone is feeling wonderful, if so keep up to the great work. If you have any of these symptoms consult a doctor, make sure your workout plan is right for you , and or give me a call to help you with your aromatherapy choices to make you feel and look amazing.

More than two million Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer every year. In the 1990’s four different studies indicated that a higher risk of malignant melanoma were with those who used the most sunscreen! Sunscreen is often toxic. I am certainly not telling you to not wear sunscreen! I have designed a Non Toxic Skin and home care product line called Truth. I continue to study Aromatherapy and have made safe and effective products that have no toxins.

The EWG Environmental Working Group published in 2014 a review of over 2000 sunscreens. They found over 75% of sunscreens contained toxic chemicals that can increase your risk of cancer and other health issues.

According to research with EWG some sunscreen ingredients absorb into the blood, have toxic effects, release skin damaging free radicals in sunlight, act like estrogen/disrupt hormones, and can cause allergic reactions and skin irritation.

The FDA has not established rigorous safety standards for sunscreen ingredients.

A recent study published in Environmental Science Technology has also shown the common sunscreen ingredients oxybenzone, methoxycinnamate, and PABA are estrogenic chemicals linked to cancer.

Here is a list of some of the unsafe toxic chemicals often found in sunscreen:

Para amino benzoic acid

Oxtyl salicyclate

Oxybenzone

Cinoxate

Dioxybenzone

Phenylbenzimidazole

Homosalate

Menthy anthranilate

Ocotcrylene

Methoxycinnamate

Parabens

Most of the active chemical ingredients in sunscreen contain potent endocrine disruptors, which can be linked to accelerated skin again.

Many of them also use omega-6 rich oils such as soy and sunflower/safflower, which may disturb the health balance of fats most likely to resist oxidation.

Respect the sun, but you should not be afraid of it. I don’t recommend you burning or getting too much sun, but we need the sun. It is the best source of D3. If you have any sunblock on you don’t get any D3. D3 helps boost the immune system, help fight cancer and improve mood. The skin around your eyes and face is much thinner and will not add much to D production so you might as well keep it covered in the sun with a cap or safe sunblock.

If you cannot get sun the best foods and supplements to protect your skin is a diet high in anti- oxidants:

Resveratrol (red wine, blueberries, and red grapes)

Omega 3 fatty acids (salmon and fish oils)

Catechins (great and white tea)

Vitamin E (pumpkin seeds, almonds, and asparagus)

Beta Carotene (carrots and red bell peppers)

Some of the brands with the most oxybenzone are:

Coppertone

CVS

Bahama Bo’s

Biore

Headblade

L’Occitane

I have worked in the Golf Fitness world for ten years and I see client after client from the PGA tour to your average Country Club Golfers come to me with patches on their face, ear, arm, leg due to skin cancer being removed. Last year I got skin cancer on my leg and it is my mission to inform others and hopefully prevent cancer as much as possible.

There’s a lot more to posture than just sitting up straight. Our bodies contain twelve organ systems, and each one is subject to stimulation, reaction, and response from poor posture. If our major muscle groups are not engaged because we’ve been sitting or slouching for extended periods, it’s going to affect all of our organ systems—especially the metabolic process.

Metabolism, as you may know, is the way the body provides fuel to its cells. Muscles play an important role in almost everything we do, but one of the most important muscular functions is being a major metabolic consumer. If our deep stabilizing muscles–the ones closest to the bones and joints–disengage, our metabolism will slow down. Our bodies sense there are fewer cellular mouths to feed, and then reduces the feeding. Our other organ systems subsequently lose the benefit of a revved up, efficient, fully functional metabolism. The net effect is that the energy we need to carry out basic functions, usually fueled by the metabolic process, is no longer abundant. So, poor posture actually reduces energy and puts a strain on every organ in the body, plus the roughly 75 trillion metabolically dependent individual cells!

Fortunately, the opposite is also true. Yes, better posture and better musculoskeletal function will lead to an active, healthy metabolism, improved energy, better strength and balance, increased resilience, a pumped up immune system, enhanced athletic performance and a heightened sex drive, among other benefits. Sounds good? And perhaps the greatest benefit from better posture: reduced stress levels.

Processed foods, air pollution, pesticides, refined sugar, minerals like mercury, crude oil products, disinfectants, sprays, petrochemicals—our surroundings and yes, our food and water are often filled with toxins. There are so many changes going on with our environment that the natural defense systems that humans, animals and plants possess have yet to evolve to effectively protect us.

Toxins are poisons, basically, and they occur on two levels, external (Exogenous) and internal (Endogenous). Unless your health is severely compromised, your body is well equipped to eliminate the endogenous, or internal, toxins from your system. Over time, however, if you eat a lot of refined foods, have poor eating habits (like not chewing enough), or retain a lot of stress, these factors can lead to an overload of bacteria in your digestive system.

At Nimble Fitness, we know that a strong body usually equals a strong immune system. The body is designed to detoxify itself. However, when external or exogenous, sources of toxicity are added to the mix, your normal detox functions can become overwhelmed. An overwhelmed immune system will have some strange—and very unhealthy—reactions to external toxins. And when our bodies cannot keep up with the toxin load, we’ll produce fat cells to hide these harmful toxins away! Dr. Theron Randolph, writes that “many toxic chemicals are fat-soluble and are stored in body fat, capable of remaining in the body for years, and as a result, chemical exposures can have a cumulative effect.”

To keep healthy, you should limit your environmental toxins as much as possible and follow these simple rules: 1) Get regular exercise, 2) Stay hydrated, 3) Eat fiber, fruits and vegetables, 4) Reduce stress. People who frequently work up a sweat through exercise, for example, can have amazing looking skin; the impurities and toxins are constantly being released from the body via their skin and breath.

Speaking of the skin, it’s the largest organ in your body—so it plays a key role in the absorption and elimination of toxins. Don’t you think we need to be very careful in what we are putting on it? If you can’t ingest it, you probably should not put it on your body!!! Your skin literally absorbs whatever you put on it. People that only eat organic foods will frequently not think twice about putting highly toxic materials on their skin. It is time to rethink that sweet-smelling lotion you use or that pretty, glossy make-up. Raise your awareness to the toxins around you, and see if you can make strides in eliminating your exogenous toxins. It’s a big part of your health picture!

If you have further questions about improving your health, skin condition, or eliminating toxins from your lifestyle, please contact me at charleenemat@gmail.com If you’re interested in organic, non-toxic skin products, please check out the Truth products http://www.charleenesfitness.com/truth–non-toxic-products.html